Park School of Baltimore - Brownie Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

Page 13 text:

To Mr. Robert A. Thomason, friend: You correctly appraised the needs of the student in a changing society. You knew the rigorous competition for college and instituted a new system of academic study to prepare us to meet increased demands. And yet you retained the old values, changing the face of the school, but not the heart. A new physical plant, conceived long ago, has become reality under your guidance. An excellent faculty is better cared for than ever before. A strong morale, a fresh spirit is alive in the halls. You have the respect and faith of each and every member of the school family. You have set a powerful example in the face of personal tragedy, that is both yours, and ours. We will remember, and be grateful. Your rare vitality and warmth, understanding and human feeling, have set the highest standards for us. We as a class, have known you only a short time, and have reaped much from our relationship with you. We envy those who follow us their extra years under your leadership. We hope that in some small way we have helped you. To name the may ways you have helped us would be impossible. We look forward to the days when our children will know you as we have known you. A quotation, almost a cliche in yearbooks, comes to mind and we must repeat, with the deepest sincerity and emotion, Anthony's immortal words over Brutus: His life was gentle and the elements So mixed in him that nature might stand u p And say to all the world, This was a Man. Julius Ceasar, V.V. 9

Page 12 text:

To you, the members of the Class of 195 9, falls an extraordinary honor. As Mr. Russell might put it, your commencement has several levels of meaning. To you the first level is, and should be, the most important: it is the culmination of your Park School career and of one important phase of your formal education. But because you are the people that you are, the second level is important to you, too. Graduation this year is not only graduation of your class but of past and future Park School senior classes, faculty, parents, and friends who make up the Park School, for June 10, 1959, the Park School ends one important phase of its career and begins another. I cannot conceive of a class more worthy of representing the entire school family on this occasion. In the last two years particularly you have distinguished yourselves as leaders. You have helped to create an atmosphere in which intellectual accomplish- ment is accorded high respect. You have done so without withdrawing into an isolated intellectualism. You have remained appreciative of and have sought for yourselves non-intellectual attainments as well. You have responded magnificently to the chal- lenges made by the faculty Qincluded among these challenges would be the non- intellectual and non-athletic-one made on the basketball court by your mentorsj. You have worked hard in this last year especially. But very significantly you seem to me not to have lost a zest in what you were doing. You have not lost the ability to have fun in your work, to derive pleasure from doing and doing well the tasks which confront you. I have no doubt that for this zest you will find ample scope in the era ahead of us. Hitch your wagon to a star was once merely a metaphor with a splendid ring about it. Today, as does our commencement, it has several levels of meaning. There may be among you several who WILL hitch their wagon to a star-or at least to ia planet! Just as for the 16th century European a New World lay open, so for you a New World awaits. Explore it. Conquer it. Make it a part of you. But don't forget the Old World. And please remember us. ROBERT A. THoMAsoN a

Page 14 text:

Dear Fifty-niners:- As a group we have been able to work together better than most. For this I am grateful and I have a wish for you. First, and I believe that if I were limited to only one wish this would be my choice, I wish that you, in your turn, will grow big enough to be a, factor in our civilization. That you will know its preservation is depen- dent upon the maintenance of its spiritual values. That you cannot be stampeded by bombs or missiles however dramatic. But I am not limited to one wish, so for you I also wish that you would be with those who create wealth rather than with those who fight over it. That, in this competitive society, you will know of the practical aspects of idealism, and of your duty to the next generation, and of the need to compete with yourself. I wish you would not make mouse-traps work by believing that cheese is cheese. I wish you would not be with the fish who snap at artificial lures. I want you to know the joy of working for something other than personal gain. I want you to know the effectiveness of living, rather than dying, for a cause. In short, I wish for each of you a genuinely happy adult life. M .QM maj Ol